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Holiday Sweet Treats

From ornaments with cookies inside to chocolate stocking stuffers that include the stocking, these candies, truffles, lollipops and other confections are festive options for the season.

by Kristen Seymour

Your customers seek out candies, chocolates and other confections and baked goods around the holidays, and there are many new options for them to serve at home or send as gifts. Here are 12 to consider.

Bissinger’s Fig Truffles

Invoke some traditional Christmas cheer with Fig Truffles, based on the dense, richly textured dish of nutty fig and aromatic spices that was popular in 16th century England. This truffle is the newest in a custom-illustrated series found in Bissinger’s holiday collection, which also includes Chocolate Mice, Sugar Plums and the Christmas with Bissinger’s Signature Assortment, along with Petit Fours made of layers of all-natural chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Fig Truffles: $16.99/9-piece box (4.5 ounces). Petit fours: $14.99/9-piece box (6.5 ounces); $1.50/piece. bissingers.com

Byrd Cookie Company Holiday Ornaments with Cookies

Byrd Cookie Company is offering adorable new designs for its line of cookie-filled holiday ornaments (pictured above). The newest products are: Triple Chocolate cookies in the snowman design, Ginger Snaps in a gingerbread ornament and Apple Crunch—made with real bits of apple—in the penguin. Long-time favorite Key Lime Coolers are found in a Santa ornament. Each ornament is 3.5 inches in diameter and comes with 1 ounce of cookies. Byrd’s holiday line also includes cups in the same designs as the ornaments that hold 2 ounces, as well as tins that hold 6 ounces, and mini jars and ceramic jars, holding 2 ounces and 4 ounces of cookies. Holiday Cookie Ornaments: $4.95/ 1-ounce ornament. byrdcookiecompany.com

Chocopologie Pumpkin Pie Truffle Collection

Knipschildt Chocolatier has launched a new brand, Chocopologie, with new holidayseason–themed products. The company’s Pumpkin Pie Truffle Collection is made of pumpkin ganache in milk chocolate sprinkled with pumpkin-pie spice and grated milk chocolate. Two sizes are available, with the 16-piece collection featuring a hand-made orange paper box made with Lotka paper, prepared in an age-old technique of Nepalese artistry, and topped with a clear acetate lid and a festive autumn sleeve. The 5-piece version, in a clear acetate box, also comes in an autumn sleeve. 16-piece Pumpkin Pie Truffle Collection: $25/6.4 ounces; 5-piece Pumpkin Pie Truffle Collection: $9/2 ounces. knipschildt.com

A Couple of Squares Let It Snow Gift Set

Inside the new custom-printed holiday gift boxes from A Couple of Squares lie 12 hand-cut and hand-decorated cookies. The “Let It Snow” gift set contains 12 iced cookies—four snowmen and eight snowflakes per set. The “Santa’s Workshoppe” gift set also features 12 cookies—two Santas, two elves and eight Christmas present cookies. Regardless of the shape or icing in each gift set, the key to the flavor is the gingerbread dough. The company’s gingerbread cookies and product design have won awards from the Canadian Specialty Food Association. Let It Snow set: $19.95-$24.95/12 cookies; Santa’s Workshoppe set: $19.95-$24.95/12 cookies. acoupleofsquares.com

Fairytale Brownies Holiday Half Dozen

Your customers can score brownie points with friends and family by giving Fairytale Brownies’ new Holiday Half Dozen gift box. The silver-lined, purple treasure box includes six of Fairytale’s favorite 3-inch x 3-inch brownies—in Original, Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Toffee Crunch and Walnut, each made with imported Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate and fresh ingredients. The brownies are made in small batches and, in addition to being kosher, they’re free from trans fats, preservatives and artificial colors. Holiday Half Dozen: $25.95/1.5 pounds. brownies.com

Gourmet du Village Hot Chocolate Stockings

While not a candy, it’s hard to top the sweet appeal of cocoa during the winter holidays. Gourmet du Village has rolled out its Hot Chocolate Stockings, available in two themes—Chris Moose, a parody of Santa’s reindeer and a nod to the company’s northern (Canadian) roots, and Beary Christmas, a teddy bear stocking. Both come with a single serving of Gourmet du Village’s best-selling Double Truffle Hot Chocolate, which now contains less sugar and no trans fat. Other festive offerings from the company include a variety of specialty hot chocolates, from Crème Brûlée to Candy Cane, as well as White Hot Chocolate with mini marshmallows in its “Snowman Poop” novelty package. Hot Chocolate Stockings: $10/1.5 ounces and stocking (8 inches). gourmetduvillage.com

Indie Candy Christmas Light Hard Candy Lollipops

Light up the holidays with this line of lollipops designed to look like Christmas lights. They are available in Key Lime (green), Wild Cherry (red) and Mango (yellow). The lollipops are hand-poured the old-fashioned way, and contain no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives in addition to being free of the big 8 allergens: wheat/gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, fish and shellfish. Made of organic tapioca syrup, cane sugar, citric acid, natural colors, natural flavors and organic canola oil, the candies shine like glass, making them as lovely to display as they are to eat. Other new festive delights from Indie Candy include Snowflake Hard Candy Lollipop in Pineapple ($2.99/ounce) and Christmas Gummies ($1.99/ounce). Christmas Light Hard Candy Lollipops: $2.39/ounce. indiecandy.com

Koppers Chocolate Navy Blue and White Mint Lentils

Known for its distinctive Passover productions and Hanukkah treats, Koppers Chocolate is offering new options for the upcoming holiday season. The company’s new Chanukah Mint Lentils are small discs of pure dark chocolate blended with peppermint oil and finished in sugar shells. The Chanukah Chocolate Cordials are small round balls (about the size of a nickel) of dark chocolate with flavorful liquid centers, and the Silver and Blue Almond Jewels feature whole dry-roasted almonds in semi-sweet chocolate topped off with a glittering, jeweled finish. Chanukah Chocolate Cordials: $9.20/pound; Chanukah Mint Lentils: $7.52/pound; Almond Jewels $13.12/pound. kopperschocolate.com

Lake Champlain Chocolates Spruce Tree Truffles

Lake Champlain Chocolates welcomes the holiday season with its sophisticated new holiday packaging, called the Winter Collection, which showcases wintery blue, silver and green hues. The collection features Spruce Tree Truffles, 11 truffles made with cream from a family-owned, third-generation Vermont farm and award-winning butter from the Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery. The line includes a mix of Cappuccino, Raspberry, Champagne, Hazelnut, Dark Rum, Spiced Pumpkin and Legendary Dark truffles. Other products in the Winter Collection include the 30-piece Chocolate Assortment, 5-piece Holiday Truffles, Tower of Treasures and 2-piece Holiday Truffle Favor box. Spruce Tree Truffles: $34.99/9.6 ounces. lakechamplainchocolates.com

Marich Confectionery Company Natural Chocolate Cranberries

For the 2011 holiday season, Marich Confectionery Company is introducing a fruity new delight, Natural Chocolate Cranberries. Created with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or hydrogenated fats, these are dried cranberries in dark and white chocolate, colored and enhanced with natural cranberry. The gorgeous red color makes this kosher product as festive as it is delicious. The cranberries join an impressive line of other holiday offerings, such as White Chocolate Gingerbread and Maple Brown Sugar Caramels. Natural Chocolate Cranberries: $4.95/4.5-ounce gift box. marich.com

Nancy’s Candy Co. Red Velvet Truffle

What could be better than a candy that’s as exquisite to look at as it is to taste? Nancy’s Candy Co. is offering a new Red Velvet Truffle, which features an abundance of flavors. The hand-molded shell, which chocolate artists paint with shimmering red cocoa butter, is made of Belgian white chocolate. The truffle has a creamy ganache center infused with Nancy’s Candy Co.’s own natural Cake-Batter flavor that will make you think you must be eating red-velvet cake. The Red Velvet Truffle is available in two sizes—medium (about two bites) and large (four bites). Medium truffle: $1.59/0.8 ounces; large truffle: $2.39/1.6 ounces. Wholesale case packs include 34 truffles in large, 55 truffles in medium. nancyshomemadefudge.com

Natural Vines Licorice Twists

Everyone loves a tasty treat, but for those who prefer to keep the calorie count to a minimum, Natural Vines Licorice is an ideal option. Created by the American Licorice Co., one of the country’s oldest candy makers, the bite-size twists come in two flavors, Strawberry and Black, and are just 17 calories each, making them a sweet and sensible stocking stuffer. They’re made with only natural flavors and colors from natural sources, are sweetened with molasses and pure cane syrup, and contain no high-fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, zero cholesterol and no trans fat, and they are very low in sodium. The resealable bag even makes it easy for health-conscious snackers to practice smart portion control. Natural Vines Licorice: $3.49/8 ounces. naturalvineslicorice.com |SFM|

Kristen Seymour is a freelance writer for Paw Nation, That’s Fit, BlogHer and Pet Home Magazine.

This article was featured in the September 2011 issue of Specialty Food Magazine. See other articles in this issue at: September 2011 Specialty Food Magazine